Thoughts on Shame?

I think it's a whole lot of posturing masquerading as "raw intensity", all in service of one of the weakest scripts of the century. The subject matter is treated so cursorily as to feel completely trite, and Fassbender's performance lacks any sort of real definition. Mulligan doesn't fare well at all; her fantastic "New York" scene aside, she is pretty horrid and has zero chemistry with Fassbender. McQueen does what he can with what he's given, but much like 12 Years a Slave, he just cannot elevate bad writing. It's why I have no faith in Widows.

With all that said, Shame's soundtrack is pretty great at being a solid Thin Red Line remix.

Bleh... I still remember going "OH MY GOD!" during the New York scene. So fucking long.

Whenever I think James Badge Dale, I always think LAW-RENT! 

At the risk of sounding simplistically dismissive, it's a pile of fucking shit.

I agree with most of what Stephen wrote, except for the "12 Years a Slave" diss and the bashing of Mulligan's non-NYNY scenes. The score was hilarious.

It's like the amateur graduate film student and his lame ideas given a script of toilet paper value. At least Aronofsky has a good grasp of his period. Requiem for a Dream is like an early 00s film and despite getting some of the same criticisms back then that McQueen got, at least Aronofsky knew how to sell his product. Tell me one talent that McQueen has.

I just find it one of the single most disinteresting films around. When I watch Midnight Cowboy, I see New York converted into something symbolic and I can see why the story comes from such a richly built stage. With Shame, what was one thing interesting that the DP did? Gasper Noe usually has some sick imagery.... and gives his films and actors a sense of madness descent... Fassbender has absolutely no great scenes here. It seems like McQueen was just as disinterested in him as the rest of his mundane film.

There is literally nothing worth of value here. None. Carey Mulligan was a promising actress - but the intelligent girl in An Education is just a laughable nothing here. I could've seen that American accent coming from a mile away. But the character is so worthless there was literally nothing that could've been done about it, and her slightly snarky attitude doesn't make even a good performance. All I got from her character is that like her brother, she likes to sleep around. But she does it just because she's just type of girl... or something. Yawn.

He made it an NC-17 film so people who likes sex and masturbation will watch it for shallow reasons. There was one teenager from back on IMDB who kept attacking me because I had Heat and Lost in Translation among my favorite films. He had every movie ever made with incessant sex and nudity among his favorites. This was just one film he had with Eyes Wide Shut and The Cook/The Thief/His Wife and Her Lover, so it's quite obvious to me the type of audience that McQueen gets ...... the kind of people who are as shallow as he is. Masturbation values doesn't make a film good, dude.

Because.... what do I really care about Fassbender's bachelor life? I could go to my closest bro dude, and he'll tell me bachelor stories more interesting than Fassbender's.

With everything said here, I have little anticipation and hope for Widows. I expect it to be more of the same thing as this film. Except he's trying to be a big filmmaker now and thinking he's Michael Mann.  As soon as I saw the masks in the Widows trailer, I knew Mann was about to die 10 years younger than his due date.

so fucking bad imo . Mulligan was at least decent in it (as she is pretty good in everything)

I'll be generous and give it a 5.5/10 score.

Kudos for not hiding in the corner.